Unilateral-Veto Mechanisms

Unilateral vetoes, in which an agent takes an action that restricts the set of possible outcomes for themselves independent of what other agents do, are a frequently used tool in real-world approaches to multi-dimensional screening. We study how this tool works in a class of task-allocation problems. We characterize obvious strategy-proofness of unilateral-veto mechanisms, yielding structural insights into how veto rights shape incentives: obviously strategy-proof mechanisms consist of diverse menus of narrowly defined rights. We then examine the potential of this simple class of mechanisms as a practical market-design tool and provide empirical evidence of their efficacy in two applications.